The Final Call

“When an investigation comes to be made, it will be found that every single thing we are doing in the Work is exactly what is being done in Nature where the conditions are right, the difference being that we are learning to do it consciously.” — FM Alexander, Teaching Aphorism #55.

***

“You will never be able to do the Roll Up.”

Her Pilates educator had announced this 18 years ago, a student in yesterday’s PILANDES Trial told us all. And she had never done it properly since then. Could she try it with me?

Looking at her – I simply didn’t believe Junko couldn’t do it. Although middle-aged, she looked healthy, was slim, bright-eyed and energetic – what was the problem?

“Well, let’s try.”

She lay on the mat and demonstrated how she always stopped halfway up during Roll Up, then had to lift her legs to push herself into the final sitting position on the mat.

PILANDES is as much about how you talk to your Self, as it is about how well-toned you are. I have written previously about Roll Up and the danger of becoming the result of however you imagined your Self to be. So first we talked about this and crafted a new possibility in her mind…

“See your head going all the way to sitting upright,” I said as I suggested a delicate forward tilt of the head with my hands…

And up she went – all the way. First time in 18 years.

Everyone clapped and her face was bright red in amazement.

“You could always do Roll Up,” I assured her, “There is nothing wrong with you.”

By watching Junko’s breakthrough, two other participants were inspired to choose exercises that challenged them. One performed Teaser with more ease than she had ever felt before. “It’s not hard,” she uttered in surprise. The other did Banana (Side Bend) for the first time without any wobbling or strain. “I could not do this before,” she smiled.

These kinds of things often happen in PILANDES – not because PILANDES is so wonderful, but because your Postural Movement System (PMS) is miraculous. 500 million years of evolution really produced something phenomenal. As FM says above: “…the Work is exactly what is being done in Nature…”

PILANDES is simply a way to know Nature’s miraculous PMS better.

The Banana woman commented: “I thought I was too old now to do that. I had accepted it.”

“You can improve with age,” I replied, “There’s increasing evidence of that.”

Just this year, the Yale School of Public Health published a landmark study: “Aging Redefined: Cognitive and Physical Improvement with Positive Age Beliefs.” They tracked more than 11,000 seniors over a period of 12 years to come to this conclusion. *

For young people, PILANDES means enhancing your enjoyment of life by bringing back into balance this vital PMS aspect of your movement system. For older people, PMS gives you the means of being able to improve balance, increase vitality and squeeze out many more valuable years of self-sustained living.

Of course, Alexander’s PMS discoveries stand behind PILANDES, as do 132 years of successful and widening practice of those discoveries in over 40 countries in the world. In summary, here are three key aspects of its promise:

1. Discovering how cueing/thinking is the real core of doing a Pilates exercise successfully
2. Opening up a new dimension of sensory awareness of movement: your own “dog’s nose”
3. Eliminating wasteful strains and efforts to pave your way into ease, freedom and stamina

I could list more – or you could, like the three I wrote about today, come and discover these benefits for your Self. Nowhere else in the world can you study a program like this.

In both London and New York, you have a chance to explore this with me.

“I was genuinely surprised — just bringing attention to the five key joints in the Alexander approach changed the way I see movement and the way I move. Instead of using effort to make the shape, trusting the body’s own system lets everything expand naturally. I really felt that sense of lightness and freedom.” — Pilates Educator, Futakotamagawa Studio PILANDES Trial.

* Levy, B.R. & Slade, M.D. (2026). “Aging Redefined: Cognitive and Physical Improvement with Positive Age Beliefs.” Geriatrics, 11(2), 28. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/geriatrics11020028 Published: 4 March 2026 — Yale School of Public Health.

2026 Workshops

LONDON:
August 8 – PILANDES
August 23 – Trauma-Informed AT

NEW YORK:
October 24 – PILANDES
October 25 – Trauma-Informed AT

Information and Bookings